Ada Colau: A Woman Who Generates Alternatives #IWD

To celebrate International Women's Day, we've been looking for women who generate political alternatives like other people breath - and no-one better than the current Mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau (in the picture above, being arrested as an activist while occupying a bank). Some material on her, collated by Charlie Tims:

Since the launch of Barcelona en Comú, Colau has taken pains to emphasize that she is just the most visible face of a movement that is horizontal in structure and collective in spirit. It was no surprise that she opened her mayoral victory speech thanking the people who had undertaken in the invisible work of logistics, cleaning, childcare, leafletting, and translation that made Barcelona en Comú's win possible.

This was not the typical posturing of a party politician. The Barcelona en Comú electoral programme was drawn up by over 5000 people, with contributions made in open assemblies and online, and the strategic and political decisions of the platform are made by the ‘plenary’ assembly, held twice a month.

As well as local groups in every neighbourhood of the city, the platform has also given birth toSomComuns, a network of cyberactivists who campaign on Twitter and Facebook, and a group of local artists and designers dubbing themselves The Movement for The Graphic Liberation of Barcelona, who have put their creative skills and the service of the cause.